Mischief Maker

I really wish I understood my kids-- what makes Allie so emotional (sometimes I wonder if I'm really raising a sixteen year-old in a four year-old's body), and why Sami insists on creating mischief. Everyone knows Allie struggles with logic, but not everyone realizes how much trouble our mild-mannered little Sami conjures up. Emptying drawers of toiletries, eating her toothpaste, drawing on the file cabinet with a tube of Chapstick, emptying an entire container of salt into the banana chair, drawing on her face with a highlighter. I'm sure there are many out there thinking that's "small time" compared to the disasters their own little dears make in their own homes, but for someone whose first child has really never felt the need to get into trouble, this is torture!

My blood pressure probably shoots through the roof the minute I have to get in the shower. Please, Sami, don't get in to trouble. Then I call for her every few minutes to see if she comes quickly. If not, I jump out, dripping wet, and yell through the house until I find her. Usually I just find her looking at a book. I always figured Mom's shower time would be the prime time to make trouble, but I realized something. Most of the mischief occurs in my bathroom, so if I'm in there, I've taken away her Resort O' Fun. Most of the time, she gets me when I've turned on a movie in the afternoon, a time when Allie's quiet and when I'm busy. Then I realize Sami's quiet, too-- bad sign. Take today, for example...

I had put in a Blues Clues video, which both girls began watching. About thirty minutes in, I realized Allie was in the living room alone. Sami was quiet and nowhere to be seen. Ah crud. You guessed it, my bathroom. Just the other day she had gotten into my makeup bag while I was gone and her dad was mowing the lawn. We had scolded her, but apparently she didn't learn her lesson. She sat on the floor of the bathroom, my makeup bag in front of her, her finger digging out the lipstick from the tube. I said, "Sami!" which startled her, and she cried, knowing she was busted. She looked up, and lipstick and concealer covered her lips (and tongue, I soon realized), and mascara surrounded one of her eyes (how does she not poke her eye out?). I cleaned her up, and told her what she did was naughty and that she would need to go in "time out." She did so with no fits, even without her precious blanket. But geez!

Are boys worse than this? At least I don't have to worry about them stealing my makeup... I hope.

My Choir Concert

Well, we had our choir concerts this weekend-- one Friday night, with another one this afternoon. Let me tell ya, I am beat. My head is killing me, possibly a combination of my sinuses being clogged, and having to sing "in the rafters" for nearly ninety minutes straight. I nearly didn't make it, though. Although I felt the Lord was with me, strengthening me.

This season has been tough with all the times I've had to "whine" about being sick. I really hate making any type of excuse for my poor performance, but David needed to know why I continued to struggle singing that dang solo. I tried, honestly I did. I would practice at home nearly everyday, trying to make it sound flute-like, just as it was meant to sound. But with my sinuses being blocked it has been difficult to find the right placement. For the most part, I think David has been quite patient with me, with this (seemingly false) sense of hope that I would be fine to sing it. This afternoon he snapped... just a little.

I was tired, had woken up from a nap about an hour earlier. I attempted to warm up in the car (yeah, right), chugging water all the way. In the choir room, David decided to have us run through the last section of "Hymn to St. Cecilia". I slumped in my chair. Oh no, I'm not even warm! Of course, that's the section including my duet and solo. Not wanting to wear myself out, I sang the duet pretty weakly. Then my solo came. I mustered up all could (which wasn't much at that point), and he stopped me mid-phrase, looked at me with apparent irritation, and told me, "Krissy, you're sharp." I thought, I am never going to get this right! He was about to go over it again, when, thankfully, he realized that was pointless. He said, "And this is why I don't like to go over stuff right beforehand. Nerves get to people..." Ya think? Why didn't you just stick to your original policy? I was extremely frustrated. Nikki tried to cheer me up, and the choir members really tried to encourage me-- "Break a leg, Krissy!" "You're going to fine." I said a silent prayer in my heart that I would remember the Priesthood blessing Kevin had given me Thursday night. I was greatly comforted knowing the Lord would grant me the strength to make it through and share the talent that has been given me.

We got to St. Cecilia and I felt my stomach fill with butterflies. It went fine up through the duet. As my solo neared, I was so close to turning to Amy next to me, elbowing her and asking her to do it for me, but I fought the urge, took a deep breath, and sang. Nah, it wasn't perfect. But it was much more than I could have done on my own at that point. I started to run out of air at a bad spot, but ended up just taking one in the middle of a word just before a fairly long phrase (for me)-- heck, it's a freaky poem anyway, and no one understands a word of what I'm saying. It think it came off well, though. I have no idea what David thought. He was probably disappointed that it didn't sound the way he had intended, but I really did the best I could, and I suppose that's all anyone can ask. I'm only a wimpy, imperfect mortal, after all.

I really wish I didn't care what David thought, but I do. He's my director. I want him to be pleased with what I do-- not ashamed or embarrassed.

But at least I know that my Father in Heaven would never be disappointed in me for trying my best, and for fighting my worst fears. So, I suppose that, in spite of what David thought, I should be satisfied in knowing my Father loves me and is pleased with my efforts, no matter the imperfections.

In the Past Month

I just came back in from the back porch, which is screened (Florida-- nuff said), where I had to run around like a fool to chase a little lizard out... for the third time since lunch! What the heck is this lizard's deal, his (or her) attachment to our porch? Oh, and it's easy to find the sucker since it always goes to the same spot-- sits at the top of the metal chair sitting in the sun. And he just sits there, sunning himself. Vain little... Most lizards have not been either able or willing to sneak into our porch. What's the point really? No bugs, so no food. But this guy is bound and determined to make that dang chair his home. I actually had tried to chase him into a bucket I had put on the ground so that I could throw him out of the yard, but he actually just squeezed back under the door and ran out into the yard. But I'm all anxious now about this lizard finding his way back in and torturing me.

Anyway... I know that I said I was back, like, eons ago. I was wrong, which is why nothing has been posted since January. Up until yesterday, when Kev was prompted to get a new modem in hopes of it solving our Vonage issues (audio kept getting dropped on one side-- very annoying), I couldn't log in, but suddenly with the new modem, we could log in to Blogger easily. Uh, okay. I'm not going to question it. But recently I did actually start a new blog with freeblogit, since they would actually let me in. Since this works now, though, I'll rededicate my blogging to Blogger (I think it's better), but if you'd like to see the other blog from March go to www.k2smiths.freeblogit.com.

So let's see, March stuff. Deseret Ranch held their annual rodeo at the beginning of the month. The buckin' bronco riding was pretty sweet, and so was the Mutton Bustin'. Actually that was hilarious-- seeing these kiddies with cowboy hats and boots sit on a sheep as it tried to run away from them. One little girl totally face planted in the dirt, almost immediately, but her dad swooped in to pick her up and the crowd whooped and hollered for her. I'd say, though, that the highlight for the event was when all the little kids were invited out to run around and try to catch piglets. Only the ranch kids were really trying to catch the pigs, so it seemed. All the other kids just ran around like maniacs squealing with delight. Allie was out there with Kevin (Sami was too chicken), and I never saw her run towards anything with a curly tail, but she sure did run the entire time, laughing all the way.

The girls had both of their birthdays-- Allie turned four, and Sami turned two. You can read about Allie's birthday on the other blog. For Sami's birthday, we spent the morning at the zoo, eating a "special lunch" at the snack bar-- ya know, chicken nuggets, applesauce, fries, etc. And in the spirit of St. Patrick we were all in green, of course. I'll always need to make sure Sami has something green to wear on her birthday, especially in elementary school. Wouldn't want her to get pinched on her birthday!

Allie also got on a picnic kick. For a while, she was asking to have a picnic lunch everyday, which was actually nice since the weather, while warm, has been quite enjoyable. So we've spent a lot of time outside picnicking, and the girls have been drawing on the driveway with the sidewalk chalk I got for them.

Well, I should probably go check for that darn lizard again. Little bugger.

I'm Back!

All right, I don't know what it about Blogger that makes it hate me so much. See how my last post was, oh, in November? Over two months ago! Ridiculous. I still can't log in normally, though. I was just visiting another blog, and decided to "just see" if I could sign in from there. Took me straight to my dashboard without any of those stupid "connection interrupted" messages I usually get. So, with all that said... I actually don't really have time to post anything right now, but I'll update all this soon. Ciao.

Halloween

We had two princesses on Halloween this year. I had planned on having Sami wear Allie's cow costume, but she wanted to wear the snow princess dress my mom had gotten Allie last Christmas. I got them all dressed up after their afternoon nap, and then took them to a few houses to "trick-or-treat" while waiting for Kev to get home. Then we headed over to the trunk-or-treat at the church. Kev and I wore his parents' old clothes from the 70s, and we had to tell people that, yes, these were actually real clothes the his parents really wore. To decorate our trunk, I wrapped Allie's beach ball in aluminum foil and hung it in the back, and had Jackson 5 blasting from the car stereo. We had a good time... and the girls got loaded with candy. Ugh.